All the Southern Mining Coal companies were represented in the competition including Centennial, BHP Billiton, Peabody-Helensburgh Coal, Gujarat-NRE and Coal Services Health.

After postponing the event three weeks earlier due to lack of waves, the 90 competitors on Sunday faced down overcast and stormy conditions with waves of 2–6ft and a massive rip which several competitors struggled against in the early rounds.

According to one of the competition’s organisers, Metropolitan’s Chris Bate, the standard of surfing, especially in the short board section, was “nothing short of sensational”.

“The quality of some of the competitors meant they probably should be sponsored by a surfing label, rather than working underground,” Bate said.

The team competition was won by Peabody Energy’s Metropolitan Colliery. Alan Phillips led his team to victory over Westcliff, Tahmoor and NRE, followed by Dendrobium, Appin and Douglas.

The mine teams were also made up of members from Southern Collieries Rescue Service and local man-hire firms. Flying the flag for mine management were Alan Phillips (Metropolitan), Neville McCallarie (Tahmoor) and Grant Case (NRE).

In the individual competitions, Coal Services’ Lachlan Bate won the longboard competition with Metropolitan’s Kevin Morton coming in second and Metropolitan’s Chris Bate taking out third.

In the shortboard, NRE’s Tully Robinson took first place, followed by Tahmoor’s Mark Spooner in second and Westcliff’s Jamie Maguire in third.

The competition was supported by mining companies and suppliers to the tune of $A13,000 – which BHP Billiton has pledged to match dollar for dollar to make a total of $26,000 for charities Disabled Surfers Association of NSW and Surfaid International.

Sponsors include Walter Mining, Helensburgh Coal, Sandvik, SCM, Fuchs, DBT, NSW Minerals Council, Centennial Coal, BHP Billiton, Delta Mining, Hardy Manufacturing, SMV, NRE Gujarat Mining, Waratah, SMV, Jenmar, Mark M Industrial, ATS Mining Services, Macarthur Concrete, Anderson Group, A.T. Mining, SSS, Signarama, Mato, Cobra, Advanced Chain Technology, Allied Plant and Cove Engineering.

The competition final results were:

Longboard

1st Lachlan Bate, Coal Services

2nd Kevin Morton, Metropolitan

3rd Chris Bate, Metropolitan

4th Keith Wallace, Dendrobium

5th Steve Holmes, Metropolitan

6th Troy Parsons, NRE

Shortboard

1st Tully Robinson, NRE

2nd Mark Spooner, Tahmoor

3rd Jamie Maguire, Westcliff

4th Scott Geary, Metropolitan

5th Tyson Loemker, Westcliff

6th Greg McCann, Metropolitan

Teams

1st Metropolitan (12 points)

2nd Westcliff (15 points)

3rd Tahmoor (20 points)

4th NRE (21 points)

4th Dendrobium (21 points)

6th Appin (27 points)

7th Douglas (36 points)